Rank developments

I did an entry maybe a month or so ago about the record of ACC teams while ranked.

It wasn’t good then. And it’s gotten worse since.

SEE RELATED:

With Maryland, Miami and North Carolina all falling this weekend, it’s made for a nice 0-5 run for ranked ACC teams over the last two weeks.

And by nice, I mean not-so-nice.

Parity is all well and good, and an absolutely huge development for the conference is Duke’s rise to semi-respectability. With the Blue Devils at 4-7 (and throwing scares into division leaders in late November), there is officially no punching bag in the ACC.

It doesn’t preclude the conference from being treated like a pinata for its inability to produce one steady team that can be counted upon for consistent, above-average play.

There hasn’t been an ACC team in the top 15 since the preseason poll (back when Clemson was No. 9). There have only been two meetings between ranked ACC teams all season.

And the conference’s ranked teams have compiled a combined record of 10-18.

As a mildly unfair point of comparison, the four Big 12 South powers (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech) are a combined 10-5 against ranked teams – let alone the unblemished record they all possess against unranked foes. Granted, they’re 4-4 against each other, but still.

All this is a nice way of saying fans of Boston College, Florida State and Georgia Tech should all be a little nervous this week. Those are the schools entering the final week of the season with a little number next to their name. And if there’s anything about the following results, it’s that prosperity (and poll positioning) doesn’t last in the ACC, circa 2008: